Spain – Latin America: a link never broken?

In Spain, the head of government Pedro Sánchez, despite the migration crisis affecting his country, told the deputies that immigration was an opportunity for the prosperity of the Iberian Peninsula. “We Spaniards are children of immigration. We are not going to be the parents of xenophobia.”

Focus today in European microphone on Spain, and in the company of Juan Jose Dorado, Spanish correspondent in Paris.

franceinfo: We don’t talk about it much, but it turns out that Spain is welcoming more and more Latin American refugees, Colombians, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, is Spain “reopening” to Latin America? ..

Spain has always remained open to Latin America. What is actually changing is geopolitics, because a few years ago, Spain welcomed a lot of Cubans. Now there are a lot of Venezuelans; at one point it was a lot of Argentinians. And then there were Nicaraguans, Peruvians, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and all that because it also depended on American geopolitics, relations, and crises within certain countries. So it’s true that in recent years, there are many, many Venezuelans who have come, most of them opponents of the current regime.

And Spain is led by a socialist Prime Minister…

Yes, by a socialist Prime Minister, but what must be understood, in the case of Venezuela, it is very particular because it started with Chavez, and it continued, intensified with the government of Nicolas Maduro . So, in the first half of this year alone, 44,000 Venezuelans arrived in Spain. Venezuela today has almost 400,000 people on the Spanish side. But there are two types of immigration. There is that which is “political”, and there is also very strong, economic immigration, mainly Ecuadorians, Peruvians and Colombians.

How do the Spanish feel about these arrivals from South America?

So it’s a bit unusual, already in the 90s, there was a fairly systematic rejection of Latin Americans who arrived in Spain. They were called “espaldas mojadas”, wet shoulders, because they arrived by sea, by boat. Subsequently, the outlook has changed a lot, and in recent times, there is a very particular outlook towards the Venezuelans who in Spain benefit from a special regime, because of the political situation in Venezuela, most of them are actually not subject to the regime of any foreigner.

In fact, they do not have to ask for asylum, they are in a special protection situation compared to Venezuela. Many Spaniards actually understand that a certain protection is given to this type of political migration, which is also a rich emigration. Many rich Venezuelans have bought a lot of real estate, particularly in Madrid, Spain in general, but Madrid in particular. So the look is more or less an interested look.

Afterwards, it’s true that Spain, for new arrivals, Venezuelans, Colombians, many, many people, it’s starting to be a little more complicated because Spain is having difficulty, like most European countries with immigration, either from Latin America or the Maghreb. The Maghreb will first have the largest population in 2024, followed by Colombians and Venezuelans.

Still no Argentinians?

Argentina is a very special case, that’s why I was talking to you about geopolitics. Spain notably welcomes Edmundo Gonzalez, the opposition candidate facing Mr. Maduro and who had to go into exile in Spain. Relations on the Venezuelan side are not very clear, but don’t forget that you actually spoke about the Argentines, Spain withdrew its ambassador to Argentina.

There is no Spanish ambassador in Argentina because Spain considers that Mr Milei, the Argentine president, had insulted the president of the government, Mr Sanchez and his wife, and therefore Spain withdrew its ambassador . There have been Argentines in Spain for a very long time, they call themselves “the Parisians of Latin America”, but relations between our two countries are very, very, very complicated.